


3 Dumb Gay Boys

by whathashappenedhere



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Listen..... spalmer is a Good Ship. Join me, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-13 23:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11770590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whathashappenedhere/pseuds/whathashappenedhere
Summary: In a world where you have your soulmate's name on your body, you think it would be pretty easy to find each other, right? Wrong. These boys are dumb and take way too long to figure things out.





	3 Dumb Gay Boys

Elmer is born with two names on his wrists. It’s not that unusual, people have been born with three, four, even five soulmates. But he had two. Printed in messy, careless handwriting on his left arm is “Albert DaSilva”. On his right wrist, “Frankie Conlon” is printed in an oddly blocky, all caps script.

Spot’s born with one name. “Albert DaSilva” curves around his bicep, and his parents are delighted. It isn’t until almost a year later when another name shows up. “Eliasz Kasprzak” is scribbled elegantly along the curve of his hip. His parents exchanged surprised looks, but two soulmates just mean all the more love for their baby.

Albert isn’t born with any names. His parents exchanged concerned looks, but his mother holds out hope that he’s just older than his soulmate and a name will appear in time. And she’s right. In December “Frankie Conlon” prints itself across the back of Albert’s left hand, and over a year later, “Eliasz Kasprzak” appears on his right thigh.

Elmer dreams about his soulmates a lot when he’s five, pictures them as the handsome princes that will scoop him up and carry him off to his happy ending. It’ll be a perfect fairy tale life and they’ll be happy and they’ll complete each other like missing puzzle pieces snapping into place. It’s everything he wants in his life.

Spot is six when he tells his parents that he’s a boy. He’s not a girl, never has been. His parents exchange looks but his mother cuts his hair and his father helps him pick out a name. He chooses Frankie, because he likes the way it sounds.

Albert is eight when he bumps into a girl with two thick brown braids framing her face. She looks like she’s about to cry and Albert does  _ not _ like dealing with crying girls. He looks around in a panic and asks the girl her name and if she’s okay. She says her name is Ilona Kasprzak and she’s lost. Albert doesn’t even register the familiar last name, too distracted trying to keep this girl from crying. They spend twenty minutes chatting until Ilona’s parents find her and they tearfully reunite. It isn’t until the family is out of sight that Albert realizes she had the same last name as his soulmate. He wonders if she has a brother.

Elmer realizes he’s a boy when he’s twelve. He comes out to his parents tearfully and they embrace him with just as many tears. His siblings don’t cry as much, but they quickly adjust to using the correct pronouns. His oldest brother even helps Elmer pick out a new name. Something in him is so pleased at the idea of “Eliasz Kasprzak” being proudly displayed on his soulmates’ bodies.

Spot’s sixteen when he gets in over his head. He gets expelled from his school and his family moves to Manhattan. The heartbreak on his parent’s faces makes him decide to keep his act clean this time around. No picking fights for no reason, no drugs, get good grades. He could do that.

Albert gets stuck doing orientation for a new kid the week before his seventeenth birthday. It’s “community service”, they say, for vandalizing the school. Whatever it is, Albert could care less. The guy is hot, with jacked arms displayed perfectly by his sleeveless shirt, so at least Albert’s got something to look at while he shows the guy around. “Albert DaSilva, at your service.” He introduces himself to the guy and frowns when the new kid stares at his outstretched hand with wide eyes. “Yo new kid you in there? D’ya not shake hands or something?” The guy shook his head as he snapped back to the land of the living.

“No it’s just…” his words trailed off with a sigh. “I’ll just show you.” Albert almost rolls his eyes when the guy flexes, black words stretching across taunt muscles- wait. Black words? His face goes pale when he sees what’s written there. 

“Is that-”

“Your name? Yeah. Albert DaSilva.” Albert shivers slightly at the way his name sounds coming out of the guy- out of his soulmate-’s mouth.

“Are you Frankie or Eliasz?” Albert would peg the guy in front of him for an Eliasz - Frankie seemed too cutesy for the short beefcake in front of him.

“Frankie. Frankie Conlon. But I usually go by Spot.” His soulmate’s hand drifts towards his hip - it’s probably where his other soulmark is, Albert would guess. “You’re Eliasz’ soulmate too?” Albert nodded.

“Yeah. The name came in a month after my first birthday, according to my mom.” Spot scowled slightly as he compared the dates.

“So you’re older than me.” Albert grinned.

“Am I?” Spot just glared at him, shoving him lightly.

“Aren’t you supposed to actually be showing me around school, not standing here and shooting your mouth off?” Albert rolled his eyes, shoving back.

“Yeah, yeah, c’mon. Did they give you a schedule?”

Elmer looked up in surprise as Coach Johnson introduced a new student to the class. The coach was pretty young and called all the kids by their first names, or nicknames, to try and “relate to the youths”. He was a pretty cool guy, if a bit eccentric. “Spot here’s going to be in this class, so you kids play nice.” The coach patted the short, very muscled guy who was all but glaring at the rest of the class. “Spot, you should go partner up with Elmer over there, he’ll show you the ropes.”

Spot raised an eyebrow at the kid who was supposed to be his partner. He was cute, Spot could admit that. A bit taller than Spot, good arms, a nice smile. But… he and Albert hadn’t really talked about what they were - platonic or romantic or  _ what _ , so it was probably best to just… not think about it. Still, the guy seemed nice enough, might as well start making friends at this new school.

Albert was having a crisis. Both of his soulmates were guys. He had always just thought Frankie would be a pretty girl and Eliasz would be his platonic soulmate. But. Frankie was Spot and Albert was feeling something he’d only ever felt for girls before. What did this mean? He wasn’t gay, he liked girls but… he liked guys too. Albert groaned and buried his head in his hands. He had some googling to do.

Elmer liked Spot. He was a great friend, someone Elmer loved talking to and joking with. Did Elmer have a  _ little _ crush? Maybe. But that didn’t matter. Spot wasn’t his soulmate, and Spot had found his own soulmate months ago, when he had first transferred to their school. So really, Elmer had no chance with the guy. It was better to just move on, look for his own soulmate or date someone else. But… there was something about the way his heart fluttered when Spot laughed and the way his face started to heat up when Spot flexed his arms while lifting weights that made him want to cling hard to his feelings and never let go.

Spot liked working out. It helped him clear his mind and think. And boy there was a lot to think about these past few months. Moving to Manhattan, transferring to a new school… Meeting his soulmate.That, really, was most of what he had to think about. Albert and him had struck up a pretty good friendship, the blatant avoidance of soulmates aside, and almost a month after meeting Albert had texted Spot “i think im pan” and then proceeded to go offline for the next 18 hours. Spot had been surprised at first, considering Albert had basically bro-zoned him as soon as they met, but that surprise had melted into concern and anxiety as Albert continued not to respond to him, hour after hour. They had finally talked about it and well… they were dating now. They had even talked about Eliasz, and how he would play into their relationship once they found him. Spot knew he was poly, had known for years. Albert was… less sure about that, so they’d just have to wait and see once they found Eliasz. Spot couldn’t wait.

Albert sighed happily as he collapsed on his bed at home. Today had been a good day. He and Spot had gone on their first real date. It wasn’t much, just going out for ice cream and walking through Central Park hand in hand. It had been amazing. They had eaten their ice cream while sitting on a bench together, leaving smears of strawberry and vanilla ice cream on each other’s faces as they kissed. It had easily been the best day of Albert’s life.

Elmer noticed when Spot showed up at gym class with the biggest smile he had ever seen on the shorter boy. “Wow, what’s got you so happy?” he asked as they started jogging their laps around the track.

“Just a really good date with my boyfriend.” Spot smiled sappily, and Elmer pointedly ignored a pang of jealousy. “I didn’t know strawberry ice cream could be so good.”

“What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mine’s chocolate.”

“Vanilla.” Elmer raised an eyebrow. “It’s simple but I’m a man of simple tastes, El.” Elmer laughed, but was cut off by a car horn honking. The two slowed to a stop and looked through the chain link fence to see into the parking lot. A pair of twin boys were standing next to a car and looking at Elmer.

“Eli, Feliks and I are going home early, Mama said you should take the bus home,” one of them yelled.

“Yeah yeah Florian, I’ll see you two later,” Elmer yelled back. “Brothers,” he grumbled quietly. “They’re usually my ride home from school.”

“See you later Eliasz!” Spot froze. Elmer frowned, turning to face his friend.

“Are you okay? Sorry about them-”

“Is your name Eliasz?” Elmer paused, confused.

“Yeah? I normally just go by Elmer though.”

“Is your last name Kasprzak?” 

“Yeah why-”

“My name isn’t Spot. It’s Frankie. Frankie Conlon.” Elmer froze, overcome by a turmoil of emotions. That… was the name on his wrist. One of them, at least. Elmer normally hid them with arm bands or bandana’s but… he needed to  _ see _ them right now. He untied the red bandana wrapped around his right wrist. “Frankie Conlon” was still printed there, clear as day.

“I… think I need to sit down.” Elmer mumbled, not moving his eyes away from the words on his wrist as he slumped against the fence. “Where… where’s my name? On you?” Spot looked around, a bit embarrassed.

“It’s uh.. on my hip.” Spot pointed to an area just along the edge of his pelvic bone. “Right here.”

“Can I see it?” Elmer flushed. “You- you don’t have to show me-”

“No, you deserve to see it.” Spot tugged down the edge of his gym shorts to show the black words. “Eliasz Kasprzak”, scrawled across Spot’s hip in Elmer’s own handwriting. If Elmer wasn’t already seated on the ground, he was pretty sure he would have fallen over by now. Because honestly? All he could think was ‘ _ Holy shit _ ’. The guy he’d been crushing on for months turned out to be his soulmate? This amazing, funny, breathtakingly handsome boy was his  _ actual soulmate _ ? “Hey, uh… I know this is probably really overwhelming but… do you happen to have another name?”

Spot was not expecting to find out that Elmer was his soulmate. They had been close friends for months and then… this happened. Spot looked down at Elmer with concern. The other boy was looking kind of pale and pretty disorientated, but nodded at Spot’s question. “Yeah… Albert DaSilva.” Spot decided now would be a good time to sit down in the grass so he and Elmer were on the same level.

“He’s my soulmate too. We’ve been dating for a few months now.” Elmer flinched, much to Spot’s confusion.

“Am I your platonic soulmate then?” Elmer sounded like he was almost ready to cry, which was  _ not _ what Spot was trying to do!

“No, no! I know I’m poly for sure, and I… really like you. Al’s not sure yet, but you guys could meet and talk about things.” Elmer bit his lip.

“That… sounds like a good idea. We don’t need to decide anything today, do we?” Spot, very much relieved that Elmer wasn’t on the verge of crying, smiled gently.

“Of course. We can take as much time as we need.” Elmer gave him a relieved smile. “Do you want to meet Al today?”

“I… yeah. Yeah I do.” With a resolved look on his face, Elmer wobbily pulled himself to his feet and waited for Spot to stand up. “Coach will let us skip if we ask.” Spot thought about it. Albert did have a free period right now… Making up his mind, he pulled his phone out and sent a quick text to his boyfriend. ‘ _ found Eliasz. meet me in the english hall _ ’. It took less than a minute for a response to pop up. ‘ _ what?????? ill be there. pls hurry i want to meet him _ ’.

“He’s ready to meet you.” Elmer took a deep breath.

“Okay.”

Albert bounced his leg impatiently as he waited for his soulmates - his  _ soulmates!! _ \- to arrive. What would Eliasz be like? Would meeting him be like Spot, where they just seemed to click? Or would it take longer? What if- “Al!” Albert’s head jerked up at the sound of Spot’s voice. Next to him, there was a short (but still taller than Spot) boy with wavy dark hair. He was… gorgeous. “Elmer, this is Albert. Al, this is Eliasz.”

Albert grabbed his backpack, shoved it against his face, and screamed. Holy  _ fuck _ his soulmate was cute. His soulmate. His  _ soulmate _ . Holy shit how was he so  _ lucky _ ? Both of his soulmates were  _ so handsome _ and had  _ great _ arms and he barely even  _ knew _ Eliasz but he was his  _ soulmate _ . Albert took a short break to breathe, taking in the concerned look on Eliasz’ face and the amused expression on Spot’s, before promptly burying his head back in the bag and screaming some more.

Once he finished screaming into his bag, Albert looked up and took in the sight of his soulmates watching him. How did he ever think he was straight? “...Hi, I’m Albert.” Eliasz laughed, the tension draining out of his shoulders at the rather plain statement.

“I’m Eliasz, but I normally go by Elmer.” Elmer grinned. “You have creases on your face.” Albert groaned and rubbed his face where the bag had left indents as his soulmates laughed. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world right now.


End file.
